New federal student loan limits starting in 2026 are concerning some North Florida graduate students in healthcare and education programs.
New federal loan limits give the U.S. Department of Education authority to define which graduate programs qualify as professional or nonprofessional. Several health-related graduate programs, including nursing and physical therapy, will lose access to higher professional loan caps starting in 2026. What the video below to learn more about the new loan limits and how students are reacting. Federal student loan changes spark concerns for some North Florida graduate students
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Federal student loan changes are raising new concerns for some students across North Florida. Students in high-need fields say the new limits could slow down their education and make graduate school harder to afford.
Under the recently signed federal funding bill, Congress did not list specific graduate programs as professional or non-professional.
Instead, the law gives the U.S. Department of Education the authority to decide how the new loan limits are applied.
According to the Department of Education, several programs will no longer meet its updated definition of a professional degree, which means lower loan caps and no Grad PLUS loans for new borrowers beginning in 2026.
For students in programs classified by the Department of Education as non-professional, the federal borrowing limit drops to $20,500 a year, with a lifetime cap of $100,000.
At Florida State University, student Angel Footman is already preparing for the impact.
She is studying speech pathology and runs her own tutoring business to help cover tuition.
She says the new loan caps will force her to pause school and work full time so she can save for a doctorate program.
My program will cost me about sixty-thousand dollars, and that is only in tuition. So as far as books, housing, food, other out of pocket cost for even clinicals, that is going to put me up at about eighty-thousand to ninety-thousand. And that is just if I continue at the school I am at. If I choose to go out of state or to a private school, I will be well above the new loan limit, Footman said.
The Department of Education has confirmed through its regulatory guidance, not the bill text, that several graduate health programs no longer qualify for the higher professional loan limits.
Programs including nursing, physician assistant, physical therapy and more will now be treated as standard graduate fields with lower borrowing caps.
Colleges in our area, including North Florida College and FAMU, told me they are reviewing what this means for their students.
Cynthia Marks, owner of Southeastern Therapy Services, says the changes will hit middle-income students the hardest and believes universities will need to find ways to make tuition more affordable.
In my particular field, I think it would be dishonest to say that it is going to make a big difference because they cap the enrollment already. I think the key issue is going to be accessibility to particular segments of the population, which is not fair, Marks said.
Monday, the U.S. Department of Education called the limits common sense, arguing they would drive down program costs and reduce student debt.
I reached out to the Florida Department of Education for comment, but they have not responded yet.
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